Rail ways

Of late, we've been having quite a few rail accidents. I don't know why! All I know is that the thought of a rail travel in my home country terrifies me. Rail accidents are not new to us. Neither can we completely eliminate them. However what worries one is the frequency of the accidents and our inability to learn lessons from our past mistakes.
I would not compare the Indian Railways to that of UK. Our railway network is too vast and extensive to be compared with the small setup here, in-spite of being quite cheap. However what lacks back in India is the intent to improve and excel. One shouldn't be blaming the ministers and government for one (or rather two) accidents. However questions are surely to be raised on what did the corresponding minister(s) do all these years to enhance the experience of train travel, except for cheap and populist political gimmicks and internal bickering? Also look at the way the current minister and his party behaved. Agreed, that VIP visits tend to disrupt regular activities, as Rahul Gandhi's visit to the hospital in Kanpur proved (read article in TOI here), it is still expected from the person in command to be there with the public to boost their morale. Instead the minister was brooding over his shattered dreams of becoming a full fledged minister and didn't bother to go to the scene of the tragedy.This really hurts the morale of rescue team, the effected people and also of the common public. That aside, just try to recollect what the current government, especially the railway ministry has done over the years to improve the quality of train travel in the nation. Practically nothing. That is why the government and the ministry is being blamed. Actually all these years no government took much care about the safety and security of train travel. With the number of people depending on the Indian railways every day, this should have been the top priority of the railway ministry. With one of the fastest growing economy, we can no longer hide behind the excuse of being a poor nation. It is high time the government wakes up to this and takes some concrete steps towards a safer journey instead of just re-jigging the cabinet . .

English winter

As I mentioned in my last post, we are now in England and taking in the full blow of the English winter. Though, technically, this is not our first winter as we reached here early this year and got a fleeting taste of the winter as it was coming to an end. However this time arround we are facing it in its full form. Strangely enough, last season had the coldest winter in the past seven years and this seems to be the earliest and severest in the past few! We already saw the earliest widespread snowfall in the last twenty-three years and a days snow took two weeks and a rain-shower to clear out. What a way to welcome December! The snow cover was about 8-9 inches deep in just about 2 hours. I know it snows much heavily in some other parts of the world, however for someone who had never seen snow in his life before this year, it was a thrilling experience. So what if it was difficult to walk around when the snow on the ground started getting hard and people kept slipping and falling. Though it has not snowed again since the first week of December, we noticed another funny thing recently. All the puddles on the roads have turned into ice! True, with the temperatures going sub zero for the first time after the snow lifted, it is a logically expected phenomenon. It is only that this is the first time for me to see water freeze outside a refrigerator. Well that is except river Orwell back in Ipswich which melted before our eyes last season. So let us see if the Aire freezes this time around . .

Hello!

Hello friends!

It has been long since I last said something. As I'd said, the brouhaha around the terror attacks died down soon enough. Most of us have forgotten the act and continued with our daily lives. Well, we can't help, can we? Our lives can't come to a halt because of some terrorist attacks. So what if people died? So what if it blew a gaping hole in our morale? It's not new to us. This is not the first time. So I blamed the government and continued with my life.

Well, I did continue a lot. I got married. Moved on from a bachelor's life to that of a family man. I also managed to bag an onsite deputation and am currently in England. A lot of things has changed around me. Will see if and when I can update you in detail. Till then this is the status update. Hope to meet you soon . .